Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- India ordered the release of
Kashmiri protesters jailed during violence that has killed more
than 100 people, and will appoint mediators to defuse one of the
most serious challenges to Indian rule in two decades.

The federal government has asked authorities in the state
of Jammu and Kashmir to immediately reopen all schools and
colleges and review steps to scale back security forces in the
summer capital, Srinagar, and other towns, according to a
Ministry of Home Affairs statement in New Delhi. The freeing of
those detained as police clashed with demonstrators wanting an
end to rule from New Delhi meets a key separatist demand.

“These are positive, concrete measures aimed at defusing
unrest and hopefully meet the wishes of the people of Jammu and
Kashmir comprehensively,” said Dipankar Banerjee, director of
the Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies, a New Delhi-based
research organization. “These measures are required for a
complex situation like Kashmir.”

The federal government’s steps to restore peace in the
Kashmir valley come after an all-party delegation met separatist
and local government leaders in Kashmir this week to end four
months of street battles between protesters and police in the
region claimed by both India and Pakistan. Nearly all of those
killed were felled by police firing.

The violence is the biggest crisis India’s Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh has faced in the region and comes less than two
years after a turnout of 61 percent at local elections in the
state promised a more peaceful future.

Extra Funds

Jammu and Kashmir, where a guerrilla insurgency against
Indian rule has left 50,000 people dead since 1989, will also
get an additional 1 billion rupees ($22 million) from the
central government to help fund schools, libraries and other
educational facilities.

The home ministry, in its statement, said the mediators
will be headed by an “eminent person.” It also ordered the
establishment of two task forces, one for the region of Jammu
and another for Ladakh, to study “deficiencies” in
infrastructure.

Singh said on Sept. 15 that Kashmiris had “grievances”
that had to be met. He announced the formation of a panel to
study how more jobs can be created in the region.

The latest outburst of violence began after a teenager was
killed by a police tear gas shell in June. Pro-independence
demonstrators across the disputed territory have defied curfews,
pelted government forces with stones, and set office buildings
and vehicles ablaze.

Sovereignty

Kashmir’s designation as a “disturbed area” means members
of the security forces are granted wide ranging powers to use
weapons and carry out arrests while being shielded from
prosecution by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

The state government will review whether to remove that
status, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters in
New Delhi. Human Rights Watch in 2008 urged India to repeal the
special laws, saying they had violated fundamental freedoms for
50 years.

The main federal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said
any dilution of the powers handed to the army and paramilitary
police in Kashmir, or the withdrawal of forces, will allow
separatists to step up their fight.

The BJP will support steps that are “anti-separatist,” it
said in a statement today. It has always “stood for strong
signals that India shall not compromise on its sovereignty under
any circumstances,” it said.

Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 and the
cause of two of their wars, remains the biggest hurdle to
improved cross-border relations.

Singh said Sept. 15 that while some of the latest protests
“may have been impulsive or spontaneous, it cannot be denied
that some incidents were orchestrated by certain groups.”